‘Indiana Jones 5’ Starts Shooting Next Spring

At the Empire Awards last night (via Coming Soon), Spielberg revealed that he’d be coming to the U.K. in just about a year to shoot Indiana Jones and the Quest to Prolong the Life of a Franchise That Made a Strong Argument for Retirement With the Last Sequel. Here were Spielberg’s comments:

It’s always worth the trip when I get to work with this deep bench of talent coming out of the UK. The actors, and the crew, the chippies, the sparks, the drivers — everybody who has helped me make my movies here, and will continue helping me make my movies here when I come back in April 2019 to make the fifth Indiana Jones movie right here.

I kid, because I actually kind of like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; the last act is a disaster, but before that it’s pretty solid. Some of it’s great. And I’ve never understood the hate for the infamous “nuke the fridge” scene. To me, that’s a great opening sequence, and the image of Indy looking at that mushroom cloud is one of the most striking in the entire franchise.

The Force Awakens and Blade Runner 2049 proved Harrison Ford still has it when he’s motivated, and pretty much every movie Spielberg’s made in the last decade shows he hasn’t lost a step either. Get rid of Mutt Williams, ensure there are zero CGI Tarzan monkeys, and this thing has a better than even chance of being really great. Indiana Jones 5 is currently scheduled to open in theaters on July 20, 2020.